Re: when to use the plural form of a noun

"good_man" <good_man_101@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1146384250.260195.155680@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I was reading an article in a newpaper and came across this line:
"The surging price of oil and gasoline has sparked a wave of jockeying
in Washington that could presage the biggest change in federal energy
policy since the 1970s."
I thought, since it talks about the prices of two things - oil and
gasoline, it should read somthing like this:
"The surging PRICES of oil and gasoline HAVE sparked a wave of
jockeying in Washington that could presage the biggest change in
federal energy policy since the 1970s."
Can you please tell me if I am wrong and why?

Prices for oils and gasoline are altered up and down
by production companies according to a single
price for unrefined oilwell product, that is used for
wholesale sales between producers. This single
price is reported every day in the financial press,
often recently on the front page as well (because
retail gasoline prices went to $1 per litre when bulk oil
prices exceed $75 per barrel.) Thus the single
"price" is correct for this sort of economic discussion.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


.

Relevant Pages

  • BusinessWeek: "Why is Washington doing everything it can to convince us there is a gasoline shortag
    ... But Washington, Wall Street, and ethanol and oil and gas companies ... Bodman appears to be protecting the speculators in oil, ... Agency to see whether gasoline demand is actually up. ... that making ethanol is forcing up prices of other farm commodities, ...
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  • Oil Prices Spurt to Record High Above $75 a Barrel
    ... ambitions and tight U.S. gasoline supplies. ... Prices at the pump also kept rising, with the average price of a gallon ... Crude prices, which are more than 40 percent higher than a year ago, ... No. 2 oil producer, ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: OT-Imaginary Bush Speech...
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    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: Bush And Republicans Permit Oil Profiteers To Rape Our Country
    ... Oil companies make .08 a gallon profit. ... When the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline peaked at $3.07 ... The rapid run-up in prices at the pump when Katrina hit -- and their slow ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: The cost of boating just went up. Gas hits all-time high.
    ... The Great Oil Robbery ... In case you're wondering why crude oil prices are down from last year, ... will give you all kinds of reasons for higher gasoline ... "There's no correlation any longer between crude oil prices and gasoline ...
    (rec.boats)